KALAMAZOO, MI –Donna Cox remembers when cigarette smoking was a much more accepted practice.

As a teen growing up in Texas, she said she would go to stores to "pick up cigarettes for my parents." And she developed the smoking habit herself.

Now a 32-year-old mother of three, and living in Portage, she said everyone these days reacts to the harmful effects. So she was ready to quit her 15-year habit when her sister introduced her to electronic cigarettes about a year and a half ago, she said.

“I was feeling bad, tired. I couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs,” said Cox, whose habit had grown to one to two packs of cigarettes
a day. She was also hiding her
smoking from her younger children.

She is now a user and big fan of electronic cigarettes.

"I took on vaping and never smoked a
cigarette after that," she said.

Electronic cigarettes use a small battery and heating element to heat flavored liquid so that it emits a vapor that can be smoked. The liquid in refillable e-cigarettes comes in a wide variety of flavoring, and has 0 to 24 milligrams of nicotine (for each milliliter of e-liquid). The liquid is typically made of food-grade propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, an alcohol-based flavoring and the nicotine.

James Bearup, whose Kalamazoo Vapor Shops sells refillable e-cigarettes rather than the disposable e-cigs that are often advertised on TV, estimated that a person can buy an introductory e-cigarette kit for about $30, plus the cost of the e-liquid, which ranges from $6 to $55 depending on how much they buy.

The kit includes a rechargeable battery (about 4 inches long), a refillable tank with a heating element (about 1.5 inch-long) and a battery charger. He said a two-battery kit, with two tanks and a charger, ranges in cost from $60 to $70.

Along with better health, Cox said cost was a big
reason to switch to e-cigarettes.

“When I quit, cigarettes were up to $6 to $7 a pack,”
she said. She estimates that she spends about $25 a month on e-cigarettes, versus twice that amount some weeks on traditional cigarettes.

Several
area retailers said that like traditional tobacco products, they do not sell e-cigarette products to people under 18. But
there is actually nothing to stop them if they wanted to.

"E-cigarettes have nicotine but they do not have
tobacco," said Angela Minicuci, public information officer for
the Michigan Department of Community Health. "The
current Michigan law covers tobacco (and tobacco products)."

That
means Michigan law does not mandate how old anyone has to be to purchase e-cigarette
products, and there is nothing stopping sales to people under age 18.

"Theoretically,
yes," Minicuci said. "It depends on whether a business has their own restrictions
in place that would prohibit that."

Kristen
Bearup, who co-owns the Kalamazoo Vapor Shops with her husband, said that as a member of the American E-liquid Manufacturing Standards Association,
the shops refuse to sell products to people under 18. Staffers
said buyers are carded as necessary at the shops, the same as buyers of tobacco
cigarettes are.

Although sellers and many users rave about e-cigs' ability to help people abandon the tars and carbon monoxide in traditional cigarettes and to quit smoking, their effectiveness as smoking-cessation devices has not been proven. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has the authority to regulate e-cigarettes as a tobacco product, has not yet done so. Many fear that the price of e-cig products will rise after they do.

The Los Angeles Times recently reported that the FDA has stated that the propylene glycol and glycerin food additives used in e-liquids are "generally regarded as safe," but the long-term effects of inhaling the substances are unknown.

Jackie Andrew, a nonsmoker, is a fan one way or another. She is not inclined to kiss her boyfriend when he’s been smoking regular cigarettes.

“Usually he doesn’t do it while I’m around him,” she said.

But things have changed since he switched to e-cigarettes about five months ago, she said.

“Even I like the flavors,” Andrew said with a laugh. “The smell is sweet and fruity, like chewing gum.”

And she said her boyfriend, age 27, may live longer.

“He has asthma, so it’s so crazy that he does that,” she said of him smoking regular cigarettes.

Who is vaping and why?

“Anybody from age 18 all the way up to 65,” James Bearup said. “People that have smoked for 20 to 30 years and finally decide that they want to quit. They come in and give it a try. It’s kind of a new fad. It’s been around for about five to six years and people are really enjoying the transition to vaping.”